Politics should not shun the cross
In fact, politics should look for the cross and embrace it. If politics has to be realistic and effective in its work and purpose, that is what it should do. Politics, and of course those directly involved in it, should be wary of being swallowed by a deadening inertia that usually afflicts it.
I would even go to the extent of saying that the cross would comprise the fullness of any political work, and indicate the authenticity of one´s motives in politics.
Just as the cross is the summit of Christ’s redemptive work, and also the life of every Christian believer, the cross has to be the crown of this human affair we call politics.
Without the cross, politics would be doomed, prone to our tricks and games and the ways of deceit and corruption. There´s no valid reason to extricate the cross from politics.
Thus, we can say that the best quality of a politician that should summarize all his other qualities is his love and competence to carry the cross, understanding the cross as the Cross of Christ, and not just our mad-made crosses that have nothing to do with Christ’s cross.
It’s this love for the cross that would give the politician the necessary integrity and competence for his work, the capacity to distinguish and relate the essential and the incidental, the requirements of justice and charity, magnificence and temperance, the common good and the particular good.
It is what makes a politician discern the over-all picture of an issue without ignoring the details, what gives him prudence when to move and when to wait, when to speak and when to keep quiet, to tolerate and to be intolerant, etc.
Everyone understands a politician’s need to make his work easy, efficient and successful, taking advantage of whatever propitious structure, support, funding, etc. he can get. Everyone understands his desire to want to serve the people even endlessly, if possible. But these motives should not be the end-all and be-all of his work.
A politician has to understand that just as in anything else, the cross sooner or later will appear and therefore should be met and carried to its full term. No one and nothing is actually exempt from this law of life.
Thinking otherwise puts him in fantasy land, not in the real world, and leads him to a spiral of temptations with hardly any grace and strength to resist them. He has to understand that the higher he goes in the world of politics, the bigger also will be the temptations. The cross will keep him humble, protecting him from corruption.
A politician, a constant necessity in any society, should realize that in the first place there is always hard work to do, not to mention difficult decisions to make. He has to face these responsibilities with a full heart, not afraid to suffer pain in any form to fulfill them.
They have to study many issues well, regularly consult their constituents, clearly outline their agenda, seeing to it that the agenda truly reflects the people’s real needs, etc. He should always hone his skills and competence, never falling into complacency. He has to be calm, forever patient, and yet decisive.
In studying the issues, for example, he should not limit himself only to the practical aspects. He first of all should give priority to the morality involved. And where that requirement becomes unpopular, he has to learn to undertake the challenging task of persuading the populace.
He should be unafraid to suffer whatever bad fate may come to him due to his position. He never compromises on matters of faith and morals. He should keep his conscience intact.
Of course, it pays to be popular, but certainly there are times when unpopular decisions have to be made. And they simply have to be made, even if one suffers political loss and electoral defeat.
It also pays to know how to be very flexible, very adept in forging practical compromises with all sorts of people and groups. But again there are also times when one has to be uncompromising, since the matter or issue involved would require it despite the majority’s sentiments.
A case in point is the current effort to approve the immoral RH bill and also the condom campaign now waged relentlessly by our Department of Health with vast support from alien groups. These are instances when politicians, to be true to their vocation, should be strong enough to say ¨no¨ and to marshall the political power to this end.
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: rocimagala@gmail.com)
